Thursday, December 22, 2011

Scientists studying a unique collection of human skulls have shown that
changes to the skull shape thought to have occurred independently
through separate evolutionary events may have actually precipitated each
other.

Researchers at the Universities of Manchester and Barcelona examined
390 skulls from the Austrian town of Hallstatt and found evidence that
the human skull is highly integrated, meaning variation in one part of
the skull is linked to changes throughout the skull.

The Austrian skulls are part of a famous collection kept in the
Hallstatt Catholic Church ossuary; local tradition dictates that the
remains of the town's dead are buried but later exhumed to make space
for future burials. The skulls are also decorated with paintings and,
crucially, bear the name of the deceased. The Barcelona team made
measurements of the skulls and collected genealogical data from the
church's records of births, marriages and deaths, allowing them to
investigate the inheritance of skull shape.

ARCHAEOLOGISTS from Bournemouth University have created a virtual map of Neolithic Stonehenge.

Google Under-the-Earth: Seeing Beneath Stonehenge, is the first computer application of its kind to transport users around a virtual prehistoric landscape to explore Stonehenge.

It was developed using new field data gathered during investigations by teams from the universities of Sheffield, Manchester, Bristol, Southampton and London as part of the Stonehenge Riverside Project.

Anew paper in Archaeology in Wales, produced by
Dr Rob Ixer of Leicester University and Dr Richard Bevins of Amgueddfa
Cymru – National Museum Wales confirms, for the first time, the exact
origin of some the rhyolite debitage found at Stonehenge. This work
could now lead to important conclusions about how stones were
transported from Pembrokeshire to Stonehenge.

Over a period of nine months, Bevins and Ixer have been carefully
collecting and identifying samples from rock outcrops in Pembrokeshire
to try and locate the provenance of rocks that can be found at what is
today, one of the world’s most iconic archaeological sites.

Their recent discovery confirms that the Stonehenge rhyolite debitage
originates from a specific 70m long area namely Craig Rhos-y-felin near
Pont Saeson. Using petrographical techniques, Ixer and Bevins found
that 99% of these rhyolites could be matched to rocks found in this
particular set of outcrops. Rhyolitic rocks at Rhos-y-felin are
distinctly different from all others in South Wales, which gives almost
all of Stonehenge rhyolites a provenance of just hundreds of square
metres.

Results from the study, which examined the DNA of 642 dogs,
suggest that European and American canine breeds were much more
influenced by dogs from Southeast Asia than by ancient Western dogs or
by dogs from the Middle East, as was previously thought.

Findings from the study by collaborators in California, Iran, Taiwan and Israel appear online in the journal Public Library of Science (PLoS) One.

“The two most hotly debated theories propose that dogs originated in
Southeast Asia or the Middle East,” said study co-author Ben Sacks,
director of the Canid Diversity and Conservation Group in the Veterinary
Genetics Laboratory in the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine. The
laboratory is an international leader in animal genetics research and
provides DNA testing and forensic analysis for numerous wildlife,
companion animal and livestock species.

Introduction

Pig husbandry is practised across the world and often identified in
the archaeological record from bones, sometimes also supported by insect
and parasite egg studies (e.g. on the Anglo-Scandinavian occupation
deposits at Coppergate, York; Kenward & Hall 1995: 759, 778) as well
as by coprostanol analysis. Where bones, insects or parasite eggs are
not preserved, pig management is less easy to recognise. Nevertheless,
soil features and faecal residues may provide micromorphological and
chemical indicators of the former presence of pigs and their impact on
archaeological stratigraphy.

A new study suggests that one of Christianity's most prized but mysterious
relics - the Turin Shroud - is not a medieval forgery and could be the burial
robe of Christ.

Italian scientists conducted a series of experiments that they said showed
that the marks on the shroud - purportedly left by the imprint of Christ's body
- could not have been faked with technology that was available in medieval
times.

Skeptics have long claimed that the 14ft-long cloth is a forgery. Radiocarbon
testing conducted by laboratories in Oxford, Zurich and Arizona in 1988 appeared
to back up the theory, suggesting that it dated from between 1260 and 1390. But
those tests were in turn disputed on the basis that they were contaminated by
fibres from cloth that was used to repair the relic when it was damaged by fire
in the Middle Ages.

The story of Edmund, king and martyr, has become a kind of foundation
myth for the county of Suffolk, but contains at least one element of
truth – in 869 there was a battle between the East Anglians and the
Vikings; Edmund was captured and later killed.

However, the site of the battle (recorded as Hægelisdun) was forgotten,
and different modern historians have suggested that it was at Hoxne in
Suffolk, Hellesdon in Norfolk, or at Bradfield St Clare near Bury. The
new proposal by Dr Briggs is unusual in that it is based on a detailed
analysis of the linguistic structure of the various place-names
involved. UWE Bristol has several experts among its staff in the study
of both place-names and personal names from the viewpoint of historical
linguistics. The use of place-names has long been recognized as an
essential input into the broad study of settlement and migration, but
the current work is an intriguing example of a precise conclusion about
one historical event being drawn purely from place-name research.

Sword at his side, the so-called Young Warrior (left) is among the thousand-year-old discoveries in a newfound cemetery in Poland, a new study says.

The
burial ground holds not only a hoard of precious objects but also
hints of human sacrifice—and several dozen graves of a mysterious
people with links to both the Vikings and the rulers of the founding
states of eastern Europe.

Researchers
are especially intrigued by the Young Warrior, who died a violent
death in his 20s. The man's jaw is fractured, his skull laced with cut
marks. The sword provides further evidence of a martial life.

Monday, December 19, 2011

Scientists have succeeded in locating the exact source of some of the rock
believed to have been used 5000 years ago to create Stonehenge's first stone
circle.

By comparing fragments of stone found at and around Stonehenge with rocks in
south-west Wales, they have been able to identify the original rock outcrop that
some of the Stonehenge material came from.

The work - carried out by geologists Robert Ixer of the University of
Leicester and Richard Bevins of the National Museum of Wales - has pinpointed
the source as a 70 metre long rock outcrop called Craig Rhos-y-Felin, near Pont
Saeson in north Pembrokeshire. It's the first time that an exact source has
been found for any of the stones thought to have been used to build
Stonehenge.

The British Museum is delighted with the continuing success of the Treasure Act
and the Portable Antiquities Scheme, and they have every right to be.

The
reports, launched last week, detail 90,099 finds and 860 Treasure cases in 2010
alone; since the Scheme started there have been 750,000 "finds" across England
and Wales, all listed on the website www.finds.org.uk.

The highlight of the press
launch was a selection of finds from the Silverdale Viking Hoard, discovered in
North Lancashire in September 2011 by local metal-detectorist Darren Webster.

THE place where charioteers started and finished their races at Colchester’s Roman circus could be open to the public by next summer.

Colchester Archaeological Trust has been given planning permission for a project which will allow visitors to look at the foundations of the circus’s starting gates and watch re-enactments of scenes last seen almost two millennia ago.

The trust has permission to redevelop the Army Education Centre, near the starting gates, and hopes to move into the former Garrison building in February.

A Vale of Glamorgan church is being
given £500,000 to preserve 15th Century wall paintings uncovered during
repairs.

St Cadoc's in Llancarfan boasts what is believed to be the best-preserved
image of St George and the Dragon.
Deadly sins greed, avarice, lust, sloth and pride have been found, with anger
and envy believed to be still hidden.

The Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) said the church is hugely important in the
story of Christianity in Wales.

Friday, December 16, 2011

SquinchPix has more than 17,000 images of art, architecture and archaeology from most countries in Europe. It is an ideal resource for researchers, tutors, students and interested members of the general public.

Earlier this year, researchers in Sweden excavated what they believe was the
tomb of King Magnus Ladulås (1240-1290) at Riddarholmen Church in Stockholm,
hoping to learn more about the medieval Swedish ruler and his family. But DNA
tests have revealed that the bodies of nine people buried in the tomb actually
died sometime between 1430 and 1520.

Records show that the King Magnus wished to have his remains buried in the
church, and in 1573 the Swedish King, Johan III erected a sarcophagus with an
effigy on top of what he believed was the location of the tomb.

The researchers said on their blog: “It is a fantastic
story that is rolled up in front of our eyes. Johan II had the impressive tomb
put up above the wrong grave and this historical hoax has been unchallenged for
400 years! On good grounds we believe instead that Magnus Ladulås was placed in
the southern tomb in front of the choir, i.e. the tomb in which King Karl
Knutsson placed himself in the 15th century. With the knowledge we have today it
is obvious that we have only done half the job. In order to make further
progress in this project we need to open also the southern part of the
choir-tombs (the tomb of Karl Knutsson) and investigate all individuals there.”

In what is being described as a “very exciting find” over 200 items dating
back to around the year 900 have been discovered near Silverdale, in north
Lancashire. Now known as the Silverdale Viking Hoard, the collection cotnains a
total of 201 silver objects and a well preserved lead container. Of particular
interest is the fact that the hoard contains a previously unrecorded coin type,
probably carrying the name of an otherwise unknown Viking ruler in northern
England.

The Silverdale Viking Hoard was discovered in mid-September 2011 by Darren
Webster, a local metal-detectorist, who reported it to the local Finds Liaison
Officer that evening. The hoard comprises 27 coins, 10 complete arm-rings of
various Viking-period types, 2 finger-rings and 14 ingots (metal bars), as well
as 6 bossed brooch fragments, a fine wire braid and 141 fragments of chopped-up
arm-rings and ingots, collectively known as ‘hacksilver’. The lead container is
made of a folded-up sheet, in which the coins and small metalwork had been
placed for safekeeping, while buried underground. The container is responsible
for the excellent condition in which the objects have survived for more than ten
centuries. The coins are a mixture of Anglo-Saxon, Anglo-Viking, Frankish and
Islamic types, including coins of Alfred the Great (871-99) and his god-son the
Viking leader Guthrum, who became king of East Anglia with the baptismal name of
Athelstan.
Researchers are interested in the single coin that shows a previously unknown
Viking ruler. One side of the coin has the words DNS (Dominus) REX, arranged in
the form of a cross, reflecting the fact that many Vikings had converted to
Christianity within a generation of settling in Britain. The other side has the
enigmatic inscription. AIRDECONUT, which appears to be an attempt to represent
the Scandinavian name Harthacnut. The design of the coin relates to known coins
of the kings Siefredus and Cnut, who ruled the Viking kingdom of Northumbria
around AD 900, but Harthacnut is otherwise unrecorded.

THIS intricately decorated Roman cockerel has been discovered at a landmark
burial site in Cirencester.

Archaeologists have uncovered the striking bird figurine, which could be an
offering to the gods, from a young child's grave during excavations for St
James's Place Wealth Management at the former Bridges Garage site.

Cotswold Archaeology chief executive Neil Holbrook said: "The cockerel is the
most spectacular find from more than 60 Roman burials excavated at this site."
It is the latest treasure to be found at the important plot, which has already
yielded more than 60 skeletons and is believed to be one of the earliest burial
sites ever found in Roman Britain.

The Romans founded London as a centre of trade and business in about AD 50 - or so archaeologists have long believed.

But
new evidence suggests the capital has a more chilling history, built as
a military base by slaves who were then slaughtered. Hundreds of skulls
discovered along the course of the "lost" river Walbrook suggest London
may have been built by forced labour.

Dominic Perring, director
of the Centre for Applied Archaeology at University College London,
says the skulls could be those of Queen Boudica's rebel Iceni tribesmen
who were brought to London to build a new military base.

201-piece silver hoard from AD900 discovered by a metal detectorist in Silverdale, Lancashire

Evidence of a previously unknown Viking king has been discovered in a
hoard of silver found by a metal detectorist, stashed in a lead box in a
field in Lancashire.

The 201 pieces of silver including beautiful
arm rings, worn by Viking warriors, were found on the outskirts of
Silverdale, a village near the coast in north Lancashire, by Darren
Webster, using the metal detector his wife gave him as a Christmas
present. It adds up to more than 1kg of silver, probably stashed for
safe keeping around AD900 at a time of wars and power struggles among
the Vikings of northern England, and never recovered.

Modern humans possess brain structures larger than their
Neanderthal counterparts, suggesting we are distinguished from them by
different mental capacities, scientists find.

We are currently the only extant human lineage, but Neanderthals,
our closest-known evolutionary relatives, still walked the Earth as
recently as maybe 24,000 years ago. Neanderthals were close enough to
the modern human lineage to interbreed, calling into question how different they really were from us and whether they comprise a different species.

To find out more, researchers used CT scanners to map the interiors
of five Neanderthal skulls as well as four fossil and 75 contemporary
human skulls to determine the shapes of their brains in 3-D. Like
modern humans, Neanderthals had larger brains than both our living ape relatives and other extinct human lineages.

A man who found a hoard of Viking silver that
had lain undetected for hundreds of years has described his discovery as
‘lucky’.

Darren Webster got his metal detector out in a
field near his home when he had an hour to spare one day, and 20 minutes later
was digging up a hoard of hidden silver coins and jewellery.

The 39-year-old stone mason from Lancashire
made the discovery in September on land around Silverdale in north Lancashire.
The artifacts date back to the ninth
century and the rule of Alfred the Great.

One of the most important hoards of Viking silver ever found in Britain contains
valuable coins bearing the identity of a previously unknown ruler, it emerged
yesterday.

The “hugely significant” hoard of 1,000-year-old artefacts includes more than
200 coins, ingots and pieces of silver jewellery that was found buried
underground in north Lancashire.

Experts at the British Museum are currently examining the hoard after it was
discovered in a lead pot by a metal detector enthusiast. A coroner will decide
later this week whether it qualifies as treasure.

The hoard was placed in a lead box and buried underground at a time when the
Anglo-Saxons were attempting to wrest control of the north of the country from
the Vikings.

201-piece silver hoard from AD900 discovered by a metal detectorist in
Silverdale, Lancashire

Evidence of a previously unknown Viking king has been discovered in a hoard
of silver found by a metal detectorist, stashed in a lead box in a field in
Lancashire.

The 201 pieces of silver including beautiful arm rings, worn by Viking
warriors, were found on the outskirts of Silverdale, a village near the coast in
north Lancashire, by Darren Webster, using the metal detector his wife gave him
as a Christmas present. It adds up to more than 1kg of silver, probably stashed
for safe keeping around AD900 at a time of wars and power struggles among the
Vikings of northern England, and never recovered.

Airdeconut – thought to be the Anglo Saxon coin maker's struggle to get to
grips with the Viking name Harthacnut – was found on one of the coins in the
hoard.

A team of archeologists has
begun working on examining the site of the ancient city of Isos in
southern Turkey by making use of ground-based sensors to visualize the
underground features of the city's structures, the district governor has
said.

İskender Yönden, the district
governor of Erzin, Hatay province, announced on Monday that a team of
four archeologists got to work at the reported site of the ancient city
of Isos, which has been underground for some 500 years in the southern
province of Hatay, as part of the work of unearthing the ancient city.

Yönden said the excavations will continue after the archeologists
find out more about the site of the city by looking at the processed
imagery from the sensorsRead the rest of this article...

The principal aim of the contract is to supply advice to English Heritage, Historic Scotland, Cadw, and the Northern Ireland Environment
Agency to enable them to advise their respective
Secretary of State, Scottish, Welsh or Northern Ireland Ministers, as
appropriate, about issues of designation and licensing under the PWA 1973.

Since Spring 2003 WA has delivered the contract. This involves fieldwork to
monitor, record and investigate designated wrecks, and assess sites that may
require designation.

Sunday, December 11, 2011

he
world’s largest silver hoard was discovered in an agricultural field on
an island in Scandinavia. The hoard weighed about 67 kilos, consisting
of two caches about 3 meters apart. Dated to the 9th century AD, the
hoard boasted a pure silver cache of more than 14,200 coins and nearly
500 silver arm rings and other objects, placed in wooden boxes beneath
the floor of a Viking Age house structure. Related to this discovery was
another find of bronze objects, weighing as much as 20 kilos, also
placed in a wooden box.

The island, known as Gotland, is a part of Sweden and situated in the
middle of the Baltic Sea. It sports a rich heritage when it comes to
the Early Middle Ages and the time of the Vikings. In terms of trade, it
occupied a uniquely strategic trading position for the flow of goods
east and west between Scandinavia and other parts of Europe, enriching
its inhabitants with luxury goods that otherwise would have eluded their
reach. To the Vikings, it was a place of settlement. No place in
Scandinavia can compare to the massive amount of Viking artifacts that
have been discovered here over the last 200 years. And no region has
yielded as many silver hoards as Gotland. In fact, more then 700 hundred
hoards, with more than 150,000 silver coins from countries as far away
as the Arabic world, have testified to the significance of this island
during the Viking Age.

Part of the ancient fortress wall of Philippopolis was discovered during
excavations by EVN Heating in the centre of Plovdiv, Bulgarian National
Television said on December 9 2011.

The find, however, will not be exhibited because the roadway has to be covered over again, the report said.

Workers
who were installing a heating pipeline made the find and stopped work
immediately so that archaeologists could carry out an examination of the
section of the fortress wall, which is about 50m long and close to two
metres wide.

The find gives a new insight to the topography of ancient Phiippopolis.

Culturally speaking, ancient East Africans were a stone’s throw away from southern Arabia.

Stone
tools collected at several sites along a plateau in Oman, which date to
roughly 106,000 years ago, match elongated cutting implements
previously found at East African sites from around the same time, say
archaeologist Jeffrey Rose of the University of Birmingham, England, and
his colleagues. New finds also include cores — or rocks from which
tools were pounded off with a hammer stone — that correspond to East
African specimens, the researchers report online November 30 in PLoS ONE.

East
African sites that have yielded these distinctive stone artifacts
extend southward along the Nile River to the Horn of Africa.

French archaeologists have discovered an extremely rare example of a
neolithic "earth mother" figurine on the banks of the river Somme.

The 6,000-year-old statuette is 8in high, with imposing buttocks and
hips but stubby arms and a cone-like head. Similar figures have been
found before in Europe but rarely so far north and seldom in such a
complete and well-preserved condition.

The "lady of
Villers-Carbonnel", as she has been named, can make two claims to be an
"earth mother". She was fired from local earth or clay and closely
resembles figurines with similar, stylised female bodies found around
the Mediterranean.

Friday, December 09, 2011

Archaeologists are celebrating the donation of a hoard of Roman coins
– described as “ a hugely significant find” – to the new Museum of
Somerset.

The 2,118 bronze coins, found by archaeologists excavating a site
at Maundown, near Wiveliscombe, before Wessex Water built a new water
treatment plant, may be evidence of financial crisis in Romano-British
Somerset.

They were found in 2006 and have been donated to Somerset County Council
by Wessex Water after a Treasure Inquest at Taunton last week heard
that the British Museum disclaimed interest on behalf of the Crown.

The Sibudu rock shelter sits above the uThongathi river
in KwaZulu-Natal province, South Africa. Here, archaeologists have over
the past decade uncovered finds that have shed fascinating light on the
behavior and life-ways of early modern humans. Finds have included
perforated shells interpreted to have been used like bead ornaments,
sharpened bone points likely used for hunting, evidence of bow and arrow
technology, and even snares and traps for hunting and glue production
for the hafting of stone implements. Now, an international team of
scientists have discovered within the shelter what they believe to be
mats that were used as bedding and as a living surface.

Led by Professor Lyn Wadley of the University of the Witwatersrand,
Johannesburg, in collaboration with Christopher Miller of the University
of Tübingen, Germany, Christine Sievers and Marion Bamford of the
University of the Witwatersrand, and Paul Goldberg and Francesco Berna
of Boston University, USA, the team has revealed at least 15 layers
containing what they suggest to be deliberately laid plant bedding dated
from 77,000 to 38,000 years ago. Consisting of layers of compacted
leaves and stems from rushes and sedges spread out up to three square
meters, at least some of the bedding contained evidence of plants that
are also known to have medicinal and insecticidal properties.

Archeologists have discovered previously unknown fragments of a
figurine known as the "Lion Man," and are piecing it back
together. Could the 35,000-year-old statue actually represent a female
shaman? Scientists hope to resolve a decades-long debate.

Using a hand hoe and working in dim light, geologist Otto Völzing
burrowed into the earth deep inside the Stadel cave in the Schwäbische
Alb mountains of southwestern Germany. His finds were interesting to be
sure, but nothing world-shaking: flints and the remnants of food eaten
by prehistoric human beings.

"Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise," wrote Benjamin Franklin in his Poor Richard's Almanack.
That may have held true a couple of hundred years ago, but when it
comes to our ancient human ancestors, researchers don't know much about
how—or even where—they slept. Now a team working in South Africa claims
to have found the earliest known sleeping mats, made of plant material
and dated up to 77,000 years ago—50,000 years earlier than previous
evidence for human bedding. These early mattresses apparently were even
specially prepared to be resistant to mosquitoes and other insects.

Early members of our species, Homo sapiens, were nomads who
made their living by hunting and gathering. Yet they often created
temporary base camps where they cooked food and spent the night. One of
the best studied of these camps is Sibudu Cave,
a rock shelter in a cliff face above South Africa's Tongati River,
about 40 kilometers north of Durban. Sibudu was first occupied by modern
humans at least 77,000 years ago and continued to serve as a favored
gathering place over the following 40,000 years. Since 1998, a team led
by Lyn Wadley, an archaeologist at the University of the Witwatersrand,
Johannesburg, has been excavating at Sibudu, uncovering evidence for
complex behaviors, including the earliest known use of bows and arrows.

Humans were making themselves comfy
on plant mattresses as long as 77,000 years ago, a study has found - and
our ancestors were surprisingly clever at getting a good night's sleep.

Scientists discovered early evidence of bedding made from compacted stems and leaves at a rock shelter in South Africa.

At
least three different layers at the Sibudu site contained bed remains,
left by people who slept there between 38,000 and 77,000 years ago - and
as well as providing a place to sleep, the leaves contained insecticide
chemicals that would have kept mosquitoes at bay.

Thursday, December 08, 2011

Try this online quiz. It loads 10 randomly selected questions from a large database, so each time that you return to the site you get a different set of questions.
You can find the Viking Quiz here…Viking Quiz

The questions surrounding why and how the human brain has evolved over
the past six million years as compared to other primates in the
evolutionary timeline have been central in the discussions of human
origins research for many years. When and how did this happen? Some
possible clues may have emerged as a result of new research by an
international team of scientists in China and Germany, suggesting that
changes in the activity levels of certain genes of the human brain
during brain development may have been the cause, and that these changes
were controlled by key regulatory molecules called microRNAs.

As reported in the open-access journal PLoS Biology,
the researchers analyzed brain genetic activity in humans, chimpanzees
and macaques across their lifetimes, beginning with newborns. They
targeted two key brain regions: the cerebellum, which controls movement,
and the prefrontal cortex, which plays a major role in cognitive
behavior, such as abstract thought, innovation and social interaction.
What they found was that the human gene activity displayed a markedly
different pattern during individual life-time human brain development
from that of chimpanzee and macaque primate counterparts. Moreover, the
distinquishing patterns were most pronounced in the prefrontal cortex,
where, for example, genes showing the human-specific changes were four
times as numerous as those showing the chimpanzee-specific changes. Many
of the genes showing the human-specific patterns were identified as
having neural functions, suggesting a connection to cognitive
development.

A COUPLE were shocked to discover a number of bodies under their patio during
construction work at their home in Ratley last week.

Builders were digging up the patio of keen historians Stephen and Nicky West
when the discovery of at least four bodies was made and the couple promptly
called archaeology experts from Warwickshire County Council.
The archaeologists identified the remains as the bodies of two adult females,
a young male and a child aged between ten and 12.

It was determined that the find was of considerable historic importance and
that any foul play had taken place a very long time ago.

An archaeological survey was carried out and radiocarbon dating showed the
remains date back to about 650-820AD, known as the middle Saxon period.

The Esmée Fairbairn Collections Fund, managed by the Museums Association, has
awarded one of six grants, from a total of 118 applications, to the
Comhairle.

Museum nan Eilean and the Archaeology Service received £85,000 to develop
research into the Udal archaeological collections and investigate potential for
an Archaeological Resource Centre on North Uist.

The grant will enable the Archaeology Service to work with the North Uist
Development Company to develop and secure the necessary funding for an
innovative research project which will ensure that the Udal Collections are
finally thoroughly researched and a final report produced. It will also enable a
feasibility study into an Archaeological Resource Centre on the island of North
Uist and the social, academic and economic impacts it would yield not only
locally but nationally.

Medieval knights are often depicted as bloodthirsty men who enjoyed killing.
But that is a completely wrong picture, new research shows.

The knights did not kill just because they wanted to, but because it was
their job – precisely like soldiers today. Nor were the Middle Ages as violent
as we think, despite their different perception of violence compared to
ours.

“Modern military psychology enables us to read medieval texts in a new way –
giving us insight into the perception of violence in the Middle Ages in the
general population and the use of lethal violence by knights,” says Thomas
Heebøll-Holm of the SAXO Institute at the University of Copenhagen, who
researches the perception of violence in the late Middle Ages.

Framework Archaeology is a Joint Venture agreement between Oxford Archaeology
(OA) and Wessex Archaeology (WA) to provide archaeological services to BAA.
Given the potential scale of some of BAA's projects, the joint venture enables
Framework Archaeology to draw on the full resources of both OA and WA, including
site staff, specialist managers, administrative support, and technical
facilities. This combination of resources (totalling over 300 staff)
considerably reduces risk for both our client and us, and provides Framework
Archaeology with a wider skills base.

Framework Archaeology is committed to a particular archaeological philosophy
developed by BAA's archaeological consultants, Gill Andrews and John Barrett.
This is concerned with understanding how people inhabited past landscapes:
archaeology as a study of people rather than deposits or objects. This approach
is at the heart of the Archaeological Policy adopted by the BAA Main Board.
Framework projects are thus academically driven but undertaken within a
commercial environment. In order to fulfil the approach a Framework Archaeology
recording system has been developed and is now in operation on all Framework
Projects. It places great emphasis on interpretation in addition to recording,
and developing a historical narrative as the site is excavated (Andrews, Barrett
& Lewis 2000).

Dendrochronological analysis is expected to conclude that the timber structure at
Chapel Lane, Parnell Street, Ennis, dates back to the late 16th century.

Ms. Irene Clune’s house, known as McParland’s is long understood to have been
the oldest inhabited house in the Clare County capital. The building’s triple
diamond stone Jacobean chimney has been an icon of medieval Ennis for centuries.

The house was first inspected in 2008 by Clare County Council’s Conservation
Officer, who recommended that the property undergo structural repair work.
Following detailed technical analyses by the National Monuments Service,
officials from Ennis Town Council and Consulting Conservation Engineers, it was
concluded that the structure was unstable and represented a danger to the
general public.

Wednesday, December 07, 2011

Humanity's long attachment to Yorkshire has notched up another piece
of early evidence with the discovery of the first 7th-century house to
be recorded in the Dales national park.

Volunteer archaeologists dug down into an outcrop of stones on the flanks of Ingleborough fell, one of the Three Peaks
famous for walks and marathon runs, where settlements were thought to
exist but none had been excavated owing to shortages of time, expertise
and funds.

The team revealed two chamber rooms with charcoal
remains and pieces of chert, a hard flint knapped in ancient times to
make tools.

Carbon-dating of the charcoal has placed the use of
the building at between AD660 and AD780, when Anglo-Saxon kingdoms were
consolidating in northern England.

Neandertals are stumping for bragging rights as the first builders of
mammoth-bone structures, an accomplishment usually attributed to Stone
Age people.

Humanity’s extinct cousins constructed a large, ring-shaped enclosure
out of 116 mammoth bones and tusks at least 44,000 years ago in West
Asia, say archaeologist Laëtitia Demay of the National Museum of Natural
History in Paris and her colleagues. The bone edifice, which encircles a
40-square-meter area in which mammoths and other animals were
butchered, cooked and eaten, served either to keep out cold winds or as a
base for a wooden building, the scientists propose in a paper published
online November 26 in Quaternary International.

When you visit sites of ancient Roman civilization, it's hard to know
where to look first: Temples, markets, brothels and baths all draw the
eye and the imagination. But if you really want to know what it was like
to live in ancient Rome, you may want to consider the humble toilet.

On
a recent trip to Italy, I went in search of ancient toilets at
archaeological sites people usually visit for their temples, markets,
brothels and baths. Apart from the fun factor -- and that factor is high
when it comes to learning about the sponge-tipped sticks some Romans
used as toilet paper -- toilets give a sense of ancient Roman daily
life. From the lavish, marble-seated group toilet of Ostia Antica to the
humble below-the-stairs john at Herculaneum, the places where Romans
conducted their daily, er, business are worth a closer look.

Friday, December 02, 2011

The Town and Country in Roman Essex project is a large scale regional study
based on correspondence analysis of finds assemblages, including coins, pottery,
registered finds, animal bone and vessel glass. By comparing quantified finds
datasets from different individual sites and whole classes of site, such as
urban centres, small towns, villas, nucleated settlements and lower-status rural
sites, the project looks at how consumption is influenced by factors such as the
influence of command and or/market economies, cultural identity and site
status/function. The project also attempted to assess the viability of
conducting such research and report on any relevant issues, relating to the
recording, archiving and publication of finds assemblages.

Data was primarily gathered from existing published or archive sources and
was collected from sites in Essex, south-east Cambridgeshire and London dating
to the period c 50BC-AD250. The database includes linked tables on small finds,
glass, pottery and coins, as well as for the following aspects of the animal
bone assemblages: NSIP, MNI, tooth-wear, MNE and metrics for bone elements.

A series of new archaeological discoveries in the Sultanate of Oman,
nestled in the southeastern corner of the Arabian Peninsula, reveals the
timing and identity of one of the first modern human groups to migrate
out of Africa, according to a research article published in the
open-access journal PLoS ONE.

An international team of archaeologists and geologists working in
the Dhofar Mountains of southern Oman, led by Dr. Jeffrey Rose of the
University of Birmingham, report finding over 100 new sites classified
as "Nubian Middle Stone Age (MSA)." Distinctive Nubian MSA stone tools
are well known throughout the Nile Valley; however, this is the first
time such sites have ever been found outside of Africa.

According to the authors, the evidence from Oman provides a "trail
of stone breadcrumbs" left by early humans migrating across the Red Sea
on their journey out of Africa. "After a decade of searching in southern
Arabia for some clue that might help us understand early human
expansion, at long last we've found the smoking gun of their exit from
Africa," says Rose. "What makes this so exciting," he adds, "is that the
answer is a scenario almost never considered."

Three incomplete skeletons have been uncovered in Modena, Italy, and
point to a 2000 year old Roman mystery which is being investigated by
archaeologists and researchers from the Superintendence for
Archaeological Heritage of the Emilia-Romagna.

The discovery was made at the site of a new development to the east of
Modena along the Via Emilia, between San Lazzaro and Fossalta. At a
depth of only 60cm the archaeologists from ArcheoModena found the
remains of a cremation necropolis and a 1st century Roman irrigation
ditch/canal. The necropolis, which ran along the ancient Via Emilia,
produced a few cremation burials and the remains of a shrine that had
been robbed out in antiquity.

The United Nations cultural agency and Italy announced
today that they have agreed to work together to restore Pompeii, which
was badly damaged by torrential rains late last year.

In a statement issued in Paris, UNESCO said it would collaborate with
Italian authorities over the next nine months on the restoration.

Several key buildings, including the Schola Armaturarum (Gladiators’
House) and the House of the Moralist, collapsed in November 2010,
sparking international concern about the state of the site. (read report
here)

Archeological research of pagan graves in the valley
Þegjandadalur in Suður-Þingeyjasýsla county in northeast Iceland support
the theory that ritual human sacrifice was practiced during paganism in
Iceland.

An L-shaped turf wall was discovered in Þegjandadalur,
which is believed to have been constructed before Icelanders converted
to Christianity in 1000 AD, Morgunblaðið reports.In a large hole in the wall fractions of a human skull
were found, a jawbone of a cat and various other animal bones, including
a sheep jawbone and a several cattle bones. In a small grave up against the turf wall bones of a newborn baby in their original resting place were discovered.

Hundreds of metres under
one of Iceland's largest glaciers there are signs of an imminent
volcanic eruption that could be one of the most powerful the country has
seen in almost a century.

Mighty Katla, with its 10km (6.2 mile) crater, has the
potential to cause catastrophic flooding as it melts the frozen surface
of its caldera and sends billions of gallons of water surging through
Iceland's east coast and into the Atlantic Ocean.

"There has been a great deal of seismic activity," says Ford Cochran, the National Geographic's expert on Iceland.

Construction on an underground train
line in the centre of Munich has uncovered mediaeval latrines full of
artefacts offering insights into the Bavarian capital’s past. Christine Madden reports.

These days, throwing unwanted objects into your toilet can clog it, but
11th-century Bavarians apparently weren’t bothered by such concerns.

An archaeological dig behind Munich’s Marienplatz square has unearthed a
medieval latrine full of items dating back a thousand years. The
discovery “astonished” Dr Barbara Wührer, who was hired by railway
operator Deutsche Bahn to excavate the area covering the size of a
football pitch in the oldest part of the Bavarian capital.

Rome, 1 Dec. (AKI) - The artisans that restore Italy's vast art and
archeological sites say they are excluded from the project to give the
Roman Colosseum a 25 million-euro face-lift and called on the government
to stop all work or risk causing "irreparable damage'' to the 2,000
year old amphitheatre.

According to the Rome-based Restorers Association of Italy trade
group, a government official charged with overseeing work on Rome's
archeological sites two years ago changed contract bidding rules largely
squeezing out art and archeology restoration firms in favour of large
building contracting companies with far less knowledge on repairing the
country's fragile historical heritage. .

In an open letter to Italy's new culture minister Lorenzo Oraghi
published Thursday, the restorers group called on him to stop the
bidding or "to avoid irreparable damage to the Italy's most celebrated
monument with consequences of causing damage to Italy's image."Read the rest of this article...

Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Researchers say they've found two pits to the east and west of
Stonehenge that may have played a role in an ancient midsummer ceremony.
The discovery suggests that the 5,000-year-old circle of stones we see
today may represent just a few of the pieces in a larger geographical,
astronomical and cultural puzzle.

The previously undetected pits could provide clues for solving the puzzle.

"These
exciting finds indicate that even though Stonehenge was ultimately the
most important monument in the landscape, it may at times not have been
the only, or most important ritual focus, and the area of Stonehenge may
have become significant as a sacred site at a much earlier date," Vince
Gaffney, an archaeology professor at the University of Birmingham, said
in a news release issued over the weekend.

Monday, November 28, 2011

Archaeologists have discovered the remains of a medieval church, said to date from some time in the 12th to 14th centuries, and the front gate of the ancient city on the location of today’s Sozopol, on the Bulgarian Black Sea coast.

The
north wall and the apse of the church are just metres from the ancient
fortress in the city, Bulgarian National Television said. The church is
near today’s St Cyril and Methodius church, which houses what are
purported to be relics of John the Baptist, found on St Ivan island off
the coast of Sozopol in summer 2010.

Archaeologists led by the University of Birmingham
with the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Archaeological Prospection have
discovered evidence of two huge pits positioned on celestial alignment
at Stonehenge.
Shedding new light on the significant association of the
monument with the sun, these pits may have contained tall stones, wooden
posts or even fires to mark its rising and setting and could have
defined a processional route used by agriculturalists to celebrate the
passage of the sun across the sky at the summer solstice.

Positioned within the Cursus pathway, the pits are on alignment
towards midsummer sunrise and sunset when viewed from the Heel Stone,
the enigmatic stone standing just outside the entrance to Stonehenge.
For the first time, this discovery may directly link the rituals and
celestial phenomena at Stonehenge to activities within the Cursus.

The international archaeological survey team, led by the University
of Birmingham’s IBM Visual and Spatial Technology Centre (VISTA), with
the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Archaeological Prospection and
Virtual Archaeology in Vienna (LBI ArchPro) have also discovered a
previously unknown gap in the middle of the northern side of the Cursus,
which may have provided the main entrance and exit point for
processions that took place within the pathway. Stretching from west to
east, the Cursus is an immense linear enclosure, 100 metres wide and two
and a half kilometres across, north of Stonehenge.

In a shallow cave on an island north of Australia, researchers have
made a surprising discovery: the 42,000-year-old bones of tuna and
sharks that were clearly brought there by human hands. The find,
reported online today in Science, provides the strongest evidence
yet that people were deep-sea fishing so long ago. And those maritime
skills may have allowed the inhabitants of this region to colonize lands
far and wide.

The earliest known boats, found in France and the Netherlands, are
only 10,000 years old, but archaeologists know they don't tell the whole
story. Wood and other common boat-building materials don't preserve
well in the archaeological record. And the colonization of Australia and
the nearby islands of Southeast Asia, which began at least 45,000 years
ago, required sea crossings of at least 30 kilometers. Yet whether
these early migrants put out to sea deliberately in boats or simply
drifted with the tides in rafts meant for near-shore exploration has
been a matter of fierce debate.

The discovery of a skull pierced by an iron arrowhead as part of
skeleton remains found in a shallow grave has sparked a murder mystery
in a Galway village – 1,000 years after the gruesome assault!

Recent quarrying in an esker in the townland of Tisaxon, close to
Newcastle, Athenry, revealed human remains exposed in the quarry face.

The archaeological work has just been completed by local archaeologist
Martin Fitzpatrick of Arch Consultancy Ltd, who was funded by the
National Monuments Service, which comes under the remit of Minister for
Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, Jimmy Deenihan.

Excavation indicated that the burial was in a shallow grave and the
body, which was that of an adult male aged between 17 and 25. The body
was lying on its side and crouched rather than having been laid out.

The discovery of a skull pierced by an iron arrowhead as part of
skeleton remains found in a shallow grave has sparked a murder mystery
in a Galway village – 1,000 years after the gruesome assault!

Recent quarrying in an esker in the townland of Tisaxon, close to
Newcastle, Athenry, revealed human remains exposed in the quarry face.

The archaeological work has just been completed by local archaeologist
Martin Fitzpatrick of Arch Consultancy Ltd, who was funded by the
National Monuments Service, which comes under the remit of Minister for
Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, Jimmy Deenihan.

Excavation indicated that the burial was in a shallow grave and the
body, which was that of an adult male aged between 17 and 25. The body
was lying on its side and crouched rather than having been laid out.

Plans to dismantle and move the reconstructed
Roman Temple of Mithras to temporary storage, ahead of a more faithful
reconstruction, will begin on the 21 November 2011 by Museum of London
Archaeology.

The temple, which is located at Walbrook Square, was discovered by chance in
1952 by archaeologist WF Grimes as the site was being prepared for
redevelopment. On the last day of excavation, 18 September 1954, the marble head
of the god of Mithras was unearthed. Several more amazing artefacts, including
several sculptures, were later found - these are now on display in the Museum of
London’s Roman gallery.

The temple was dismantled at that time and the Roman building material put into
storage. In 1962, the temple was reconstructed on a podium adjacent to Queen
Victoria Street, 90 metres from its original site, nine metres above its
original level and set in modern cement mortar.

THE moment in history when the entire Roman Empire may have been ruled from a
Tyneside town will be relived today.

Finds from digs at Arbeia Roman fort in South Shields have offered convincing
evidence that the Emperor Severus and his sons Caracalla and Geta were at the
base as they prepared for a campaign into Scotland.

Because the imperial family and court were present, that would have
effectively meant that the empire would have been governed from South
Shields.

Using data obtained from the archaeological record, a team of researchers
at Arizona State University and the University of Colorado, Denver,
conducted experiments using complex computer modeling to analyze
evidence of how human hunter-gatherers responded culturally and
biologically to the dramatic changes that took place during the last Ice
Age. The results showed, among other things, that the Neanderthals,
thought by many scientists to have become extinct at least in part
because of their inadaptability and inability to compete with the
expanding presence of modern humans, may have actually been victims of
their own success.

A four-sided red jasper sealstone is among the finds unearthed during
this season’s excavation of the Minoan peak sanctuary at Vrysinas,
located south of the city of Rethymnon. The whole area was officially
announced and included in the archaeological sites list by the Central
Archaeological Council of Greece.

The sealstone, which is carved on all four surfaces with characters
of the Minoan Hieroglyphic script, constitutes the sole evidence to date
for the presence of this earliest Minoan style of writing in Western
Crete.

The excavation, which began in 2004, is conducted by the Ephorate of
Prehistoric and Classical Antiquities under the supervision of the
archaeologist Helena Papadopoulou in collaboration with Prof. Iris
Tzachili from the Department of History and Archaeology of the
University of Crete.

Thursday, November 17, 2011

An excavation has revealed a fortified early medieval
settlement and unearthed significant artefacts suggesting this site
near a tiny Scottish village was a seat of major political power and
influence.

Late Roman pottery found during archaeological excavation at the
site of a collection of eight symbol stones in Rhynie, has provided
fresh information on the Picts.

Earlier this year Dr Gordon Noble, from the University of Aberdeen, and Dr Meggen Gondek,
from the University of Chester, led the Rhynie Environs Archaeological
Project (REAP) in an excavation at the site where carved stones have
been found south of the village.

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

The Greeks were not always in such dire financial straits as today.
German archeologists have discovered a very large commercial area from
the ancient Greek era during excavations on Sicily.

Led by Professor Dr. Martin Bentz, archeologists at the University of
Bonn began unearthing one of Greek antiquity's largest craftsmen's
quarters in the Greek colonial city of Selinunte (7th-3rd century B.C.)
on the island of Sicily during two excavation campaigns in September
2010 and in the fall of 2011.

The project is conducted in collaboration with the Italian
authorities and the German Archaeological Institute. Its goal is to
study an area of daily life in ancient cities that has hitherto received
little attention.

An archaeological site in Bulgaria, including remnants of a village said
to date back 8000 years, has been destroyed by bulldozers, allegedly
the work of a construction company building part of a new road from
Bulgaria to Greece.

The destruction means that archaeologists have lost thousands of years of history, Bulgarian National Television reported.

A
special commission from the Ministry of Culture is inspecting the
damage to the site, near Momchilgrad, and police are investigating.

Zharin
Velichkov, chief inspector at the Ministry of Culture’s national
institute for immovable cultural heritage, said that the site had
individual layers dating back thousands of years, believed to reach back
as far as 6000 BCE.

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

The Greeks were not always in such dire financial straits as today.
But is it necessary to look as far back as these Bonn archeologists did
in order to see a huge, flourishing Greek commercial area? They have
just discovered a very large commercial area from the ancient Greek era
during excavations on Sicily.

Led by Professor Dr. Martin Bentz, Bonn archeologists began
un¬earthing one of Greek antiquity's largest craftsmen's quarters in the
Greek colonial city of Selinunte (7th-3rd century B.C.) on the island
of Sicily during two excavation campaigns in September 2010 and in the
fall of 2011. The project is conducted in collaboration with the Italian
authorities and the German Archaeological Institute. Its goal is to
study an area of daily life in ancient cities that has hitherto
re¬ceived little attention.

"To what extent the ancient Greeks already had something like
"commercial areas" has been a point of discussion in expert circles to
this day," said Bonn archeologist Dr. Gabriel Zuchtriegel, a research
associate who coordinates the Selinunte project together with Dr. Jon
Albers from the Institut für Klassische Archäologie der Universität Bonn
at the Chair of Prof. Dr. Martin Bentz. " A concentration of certain
'industries' and craftsmen in special districts does not only presuppose
proactive planning; it is also based on a certain idea of how a city
should best be organized – from a practical as well as from a social
and political point of view. E.g., who will be allowed to live and work
where?" The University of Bonn excavations are now contributing to
finding a new answer to such questions.

About Me

I am a freelance archaeologist and Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries and the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland specializing in the medieval period. I have worked as a field archaeologist for the Department of Environment (Northern Ireland) and the Museum of London. I have been involved in continuing education for many years and have taught for the University of Oxford Department for Continuing Education (OUDCE) and the Universities of London, Essex, Ulster, and the London College of the University of Notre Dame, and I was the Archaeological Consultant for Southwark Cathedral. I am the author of and tutor for an OUDCE online course on the Vikings, and the Programme Director and Academic Director for the Oxford Experience Summer School.